Inexpensive, stable circuit measures heart rate

Inexpensive transistorized circuit provides reliable analog indications of heart rate in response to preamplified electrocardiograph signal applied to its input

Biomedical recording system

System collects medical data directly from patients and permanently records and displays several parameters - electrocardiograph, electroencephalograph, heart rate, respiration rate, auscultatory blood pressure, leg circumference changes, body temperature, and time. Components and operation of the system are described

Blood pressure measuring system for separating and separately recording dc signal and an ac signal Patent

Blood pressure measuring system for separately recording dc and ac pressure signals of Korotkoff sound

Chimpanzee faces under the magnifying glass: emerging methods reveal cross-species similarities and individuality

Independently, we created descriptive systems to characterize chimpanzee facial behavior, responding to a common need to have an objective, standardized coding system to ask questions about primate facial behaviors. Even with slightly different systems, we arrive at similar outcomes, with convergent conclusions about chimpanzee facial mobility. This convergence is a validation of the importance of the approach, and provides support for the future use of a facial action coding system for chimpanzees,ChimpFACS. Chimpanzees share many facial behaviors with those of humans. Therefore, processes and mechanisms that explain individual differences in facial activity can be compared with the use of a standardized systems such asChimpFACSandFACS. In this chapter we describe our independent methodological approaches, comparing how we arrived at our facial coding categories. We present some Action Descriptors (ADs) from Gaspar’s initial studies, especially focusing on an ethogram of chimpanzee and bonobo facial behavior, based on studies conducted between 1997 and 2004 at three chimpanzee colonies (The Detroit Zoo; Cleveland Metroparks Zoo; and Burger’s Zoo) and two bonobo colonies (The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium; The Milwaukee County Zoo). We discuss the potential significance of arising issues, the minor qualitative species differences that were found, and the larger quantitative differences in particular facial behaviors observed between species, e.g., bonobos expressed more movements containing particular action units (Brow Lowerer, Lip Raiser, Lip Corner Puller) compared with chimpanzees. The substantial interindividual variation in facial behavior within each species was most striking. Considering individual differences and the impact of development, we highlight the flexibility in facial activity of chimpanzees. We discuss the meaning of facial behaviors in nonhuman primates, addressing specifically individual attributes of Social Attraction, facial expressivity, and the connection of facial behavior to emotion. We do not rule out the communicative function of facial behavior, in which case an individual’s properties of facial behavior are seen as influencing his or her social life, but provide strong arguments in support of the role of facial behavior in the expression of internal states

Climate Change and Natural Disaster Loss Prediction in the United States

This project intends to answer the question of how rising disaster losses correlate to essential climate change variables. Despite the substantial upward trend in economic losses from disaster, there is still debate over whether anthropogenic climate change has been the main driver of losses. This is due to the need to control for complex socioeconomic variables such as population, social vulnerability, economic growth effects, and more. The project will investigate the effects of temperature, precipitation, and vulnerability on disaster losses to examine how these measures have predicted the human cost of disaster. I hypothesize that climate indicators will predict disaster damages, and that these effects will vary based on social vulnerability and physical exposure. I also predict regional climate data will predict damages more accurately than global data. By illuminating the variables that best predict losses and identifying quantitative trends, this project will quantify the relative contribution from anthropogenic climate change to disaster losses and provide helpful information about the predictive power of individual climate variables. Quantitative analysis of the secondary data will be conducted and the implications of climate change in the future will be discussed, as well as a review of the literature, especially in the area of disaster attribution. The secondary data are available through NOAA, SHELDUS and NLDAS datasets. These data will be used to quantitatively study the relationship of specific climate variables to disaster losses. Correlation and regression analysis will be conducted on a county-level and global scale using Stata

Characterization of Two Temperature-sensitive Mutants of Escherichia Coli Exhibiting an Altered L22 Ribosomal Protein

Analysis of E. coli strains SK1047 and SK1048 have shown them to be temperature-sensitive, protein-synthesis deficient. An alteration in ribosomal protein L22 was detected in both strains using two dimensional gel electrophoresis. Protein L22 was purified from both strains by reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography and from two dimensional electrophoretic gels. Purified ribosomal protein L22 was labeled by reductive methylation and used in 23S RNA binding assays with and without ribosomal protein L4. At the permissive temperature, protein L22 from SK1047 bound less efficiently than the control while protein L22 from SK1048 bound as efficiently as the control. At the restrictive temperature, both forms of mutant protein L22 bound less efficiently than the control. In both mutants, temperature sensitivity was mapped to the chromosomal region containing the rplV gene for ribosomal protein L22 using bacteriophage P1 transduction and bacteriophage $\lambda$ complementation. The wild type rplV gene subcloned into plasmid pLF1.0 was also shown to complement temperature sensitivity. The partial diploid nature of strains complemented by $\lambda$fus2 and plasmid pLF1.0 was verified when both wild type and mutant protein L22 were found on two dimensional gels. Reisolation of protein L22 from gels of $\lambda$fus2 complemented cells showed that both forms of protein L22 were in equal proportion irrespective of growth temperature. Reisolation of protein L22 from gels of plasmid pLF1.0 complemented cells showed that incorporation of the mutant protein exceeded the control protein at the permissive temperature; while the reverse was seen at the restrictive temperature. Temperature-shift experiments were conducted on complemented mutant cells to determine the effect of increased gene dosage on the coordinated regulation of ribosomal protein synthesis. Mutants complemented with $\lambda$fus2 exhibited normal cell growth, indicating that regulation was not effected. Cells transformed with plasmid pLF1.0 exhibited a reduction in growth possibly due to the disruption of balanced synthesis. The wild type and both mutant rplV genes were amplified using polymerase chain reaction and the PCR product was sequenced using primer extension. Sequencing of DNA from both mutants revealed the codon CGC for the amino acid arginine at position 8 in the protein chain was mutated to the TGC codon for the amino acid cysteine. The wild type ribosomal protein L22 contains no cysteine residues. The mutation was confirmed by testing control and mutant protein L22 for the presence of sulfhydryls using 4,4\sp\prime-dithiodipyridine. Ribosomal protein L22 isolated from both mutant strains was found to contain one cysteine sulfhydryl group

New fabrication technique for highly sensitive qPlus sensor with well-defined spring constant

A new technique for the fabrication of highly sensitive qPlus sensor for atomic force microscopy (AFM) is described. Focused ion beam was used to cut then weld onto a bare quartz tuning fork a sharp micro-tip from an electrochemically etched tungsten wire. The resulting qPlus sensor exhibits high resonance frequency and quality factor allowing increased force gradient sensitivity. Its spring constant can be determined precisely which allows accurate quantitative AFM measurements. The sensor is shown to be very stable and could undergo usual UHV tip cleaning including e-beam and field evaporation as well as in-situ STM tip treatment. Preliminary results with STM and AFM atomic resolution imaging at $4.5\,K$ of the silicon $Si(111)-7\times 7$ surface are presented.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure